Gravity
by Liari
Summary: Something always brings me back to you, it never takes too long.  How do you reconcile your desires with your duty?  One woman wants to know, so who else should she ask but the one she desires?  First in the song fic series.


_A/N- If you can, listen to Sara Bareilles' Gravity (which the lyrics are from) while you read this. It just really struck me as their song, so I had to write it, even though they're not who I usually write. If you like it, please review and let me know if you want more like this featuring the other senshi and their shitennou, because I'm thinking about it. Thanks!_

_000 _

Snow fell outside, frosting the world and making it glitter in the streetlights. A slim woman leaned back against a broad chest, blue eyes shadowed and unfathomable as she looked out over the still Tokyo streets from the balcony of her apartment. Arms enfolded her, wrapped around her waist, and she sighed. "It's not that I don't enjoy the quiet, you know. It's just that I always wonder what it'll lead into, what'll break the silence. They trust me to protect them, lead them, so I can't trust peace. I want to, but I can't."

"I know." That was all he said, but she took comfort in it, heard the understanding behind the words. The arms around her tightened slightly, and she covered the hands clasped at her navel with her own. She marveled for a moment at how delicate her hands looked compared to his, dwarfed by the contrast, even though she knew how capable her hands were.

_Something always brings me back to you,_

_it never takes too long._

_No matter what I say or do,_

_still feel you here, 'til the moment I'm gone._

She inhaled, his scent achingly familiar, the same it'd always been. A light musk remembered from moments both intimate and heartbreaking, a ghost that haunted her throughout her lives, tantalizing her with its memory even before she met him again. Her eyes darkened again at the thought of some of those lives, and what he'd been in them.

_You hold me without touch._

_You keep me without chains._

_I never wanted anything so much_

_than to drown in your love and not feel your rain._

She pulled away to turn and look at him, the warmth of his arms lingering. She met his calm eyes and felt the same pang she always did. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment, the longing stealing it away. A tear poised at the corner of one eye, so she closed them both, trapped the tear. Even when she couldn't see him, she could feel him standing there, a solid presence that promised everything she ever wanted. She reached out blindly, pressed her hand against his chest, his heartbeat steady under her palm. When his hand came up to cover hers in a mirror of her action before, she let herself move closer, slip an arm around his waist as his arm cradled her against him.

_Set me free._

_Leave me be._

_I don't wanna fall another moment into your gravity._

_Here I am,_

_and I stand so tall,_

_just the way I'm supposed to be;_

_but you're onto me_

_and all over me._

"We have to protect our future. Everything we do now has to be devoted to that vision, to building that world." She laughed softly, almost bitterly. "After all, it's supposed to be perfect." The tear slipped free and traced a cool path down her pale cheek. "And I will always work for that."

"I know."

She waited for more, but it didn't come. He just smoothed a hand down her back, the caress making her soul bleed with emotion. "I have to be strong for them; they _need_ me to be that. I'm supposed to be the leader, you know? They look to me, and I'll never let them down, no matter what." She wanted to wail, scream, cry and sob, because it wasn't enough; she needed more than to be what they needed. She did none of that because it wasn't what she wanted that mattered; what mattered was an idea called Crystal Tokyo, a promise of true peace that seemed too far away.

_You love me 'cause I'm fragile_

_when I thought that I was strong._

_But when you touch me for a little while_

_all my fragile strength is gone._

She felt as though the only thing keeping her from blowing away in a brittle dust was his heartbeat, so steady, so even. "But," she whispered, "is it wrong for me to want more? To want to be more than a warrior, more than a princess, to be more than just these things that I'm supposed to be? What about me as a woman? Can't I have something just for me? Would that tear apart our future? How could it, if it's a future that's supposed to be perfect? If it's a future I'm supposed to be happy in?" Her hand pulled free from where it was held to his chest and slipped to curl around the nape of his neck as she trembled with something too strong to name.

_I live here on my knees_

_as I try to make you see_

_that you're everything I think I need here on the ground._

_But you're neither friend nor foe,_

_though I can't seem to let you go._

_The one thing that I still know is that you're keeping me down._

She opened her eyes and looked up into his, searching. "I've forgiven everything, you know that, but how can I forget when I'm responsible for everyone's safety? Can you tell me that you'd never turn on us again? That you aren't a threat to everything we've done?"

He averted his eyes silently, face harsh and almost unreadable but for the trace of anguished shame that only she could see, and she nearly cried in earnest, sobs captured a moment before they burst from her. "You see? And yet… I don't want to let you go. I don't think I _can _let you go…"

"Why?" His blunt question, asked as he met her eyes once more, stilled her shivering.

In a moment their past flashed before her eyes, then their present, and in that she saw everything. Laughter, tears, pain and joy. Now calm she answered him, knowing the simple truth of this as she knew nothing else. "Because I love you."

Grey-green eyes held her own as a muscle ticked in his jaw, a shadow of fierce emotion passing over his sharp features. "…good."

She smiled wryly, a little desperately. "Is that all you have to say about it, Kunzite?"

His gaze swept over her and left a burning sensation in its wake. She bit her lip when his hand came up and cradled her cheek, his thumb gently stroking along her cheekbone. "No." He kissed her forehead, then both eyelids as they fluttered close, then gently, so gently, her mouth. When he pulled back she listed towards him, reluctant to lose the contact. At his rich chuckle she opened her eyes again, indignant, but forgot what she was going to yell at him when she saw his smile. "All I have to say…is that I love you, too, Minako. And nothing will ever change that; nothing has ever changed that. Yes, we were enemies, and I…I killed you. I didn't have any right to ask your forgiveness for that, though you gave it, and I will never ask you to forget that. But we are both leaders; I know what rests on your shoulders. You'll make the right decisions for the world. I know that. However, that doesn't mean that we have to give up what we have. I can't live without you, Mina. It's like you have your own gravitational pull, and I can't get out of it. You are my sun. Yes, we each have our duties, but we can still meet the future together. And that's what I want. To meet the future together with you. _That's_ all I have to say about it."

Her smile blossomed, became radiant and genuine. Her laughter burbled over as she hugged him tight, her body flush against his. Blue eyes sparkled with joy and mischief. _Even with everything, we can still have each other. _Her heart overflowed, and she dared tease him as only she could while she drew him into the bedroom.

"You always did talk too much, love."

_Something always brings me back to you_

_it never takes too long... _


End file.
